California’s Muir Woods National Monument

On a pleasant January day, diglloyd and offspring explored the delightful Muir Woods, about a 25 minute drive north of San Francisco, California.  Presence of the latter disallowed any serious photography, but a few fun infrared snapshots resulted nonetheless (see below).

While visiting the San Francisco area, Muir Woods is a great place to relax, smell the fresh air, and at this time of year, look for endangered spawning Coho salmon in the creek (and Steelhead trout as well).  This year, unlike your author’s visit four years ago, there are few salmon (so far at least).  The best time to visit is early morning or evening on weekdays, when visitors are scarce, thus avoiding the clueless variety who feel that a prohibited cigarette enhances the wonderfully fresh air.

If you’re looking for an IR camera, my Nikon D70 is for sale for $850.  The camera works great—save yourself the hassle of sending yours in and waiting for it.  It has a hardened filter installed, which may be cleaned (unlike some conversions which use soft filters).  I will be converting a Nikon D200 to IR use and so won’t need the D70 IR much longer.